From: Lineage 6274 of Qosqo Pacha
• Tool Type: Fine-Work Kit (Knot-Picks, Etching Styluses and Repair Tools)
• Carried Location: Rolled and tied in a leather case on the waist belt. A few individual picks ride in the wrist loops of the Knot-Guard Bracers. The roll counts as a single carried item.
• Tier: 1 (Common)
• Required Training: Lockwork and Fine Mechanisms or Rune Inscription
• Attunement: Handheld (instant when a tool from the roll is held)
• Item Health Points: 10 plus the avatar’s maximum health points (resilience 10)
• Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Suggested Value: 80 silver
• Appearance: A long roll of soft, dark leather tied with a crimson cord, which opens to show rows of slender instruments in small woven pockets. They include bone and bronze knot-picks of several hooked and pointed shapes, fine obsidian etching styluses, tiny cord-clamps, a small spool of undyed repair fiber and a set of thin bronze tension wires. The inside of the roll is stitched with the Qosqo-Khipu name of Mama Ch’aska Khipurana, who first assembled the pattern.
• Properties:
• Knot and Lock Work: The picks and tension wires work on both knots and mechanical locks. The holder gains +1 temporary skill point to Lockwork and Fine Mechanisms while working with tools from the roll.
• Rune Etching: The obsidian styluses can inscribe Khipu-Glyphs and simple runes into leather, wood, bone, stone or soft metal. The holder gains +1 temporary skill point to Rune Inscription while using them, provided they have the materials and time the work requires.
• Cord Mending (spell, 1 charge, recharges at dawn): As a 10-minute ritual, the holder chants in Pacha-Qosqo while working the repair fiber into a damaged cord, braid or woven item. The ritual restores 1d4 + tier die health points to that item, up to its maximum. Items reduced to half their health points or less are no longer broken once mended above that threshold.
• Untie the Bind (free action, once per turn): When the holder is restrained by rope, cord, netting or similar woven bindings, they can work a pick into the binding. Attempts to escape or slip the binding are made with advantage.
• Lore: This kit’s pattern dates back to Mama Ch’aska’s eleven seasons in the Rockfall scar, where she needed tools fine enough to free crushed cords from stone without breaking a single strand. The Archive-Terraces still make every Knot-Pick Roll to her original layout. The oldest instrument in Illari’s roll, a bone pick yellowed with age, is said to have been carved by Ch’aska herself, and passed down through the female line to whichever daughter showed the steadiest hands.
Expanded Lore
* The origin of pattern 3528 lies in the devastating seismic aftermath of the Rockfall, where the lower libraries of Turrath were crushed under tectonic shelf shifts. When the disaster struck, the Archive-Terraces mobilized recovery teams, but conventional mining spikes and bronze crowbars caused catastrophic splintering, obliterating centuries of brittle, soot-blackened records trapped between collapsed flagstones. Recognizing that brute excavation was destroying what little history survived, Mama Ch’aska Khipurana descended into the toxic sulfur-gaps of the scar. Over eleven unbroken seasons, living in damp subterranean bivouacs where seismic aftershocks rattled the bedrock daily, she pioneered the art of structural fiber salvage. She realized that extracting crushed cords required surgical leverage, non-abrasive probe angles, and vibration-dampening materials that would not shear ancient alpaca fibers already degraded by heat and mineral leaching.
* Working by the flickering tallow lamps of the lower shelves, Ch’aska fashioned specialized tools from whatever salvageable materials the depths offered: bone slivers carved from the marrow-dense leg bones of sacrificial vicuñas, soft tin-bronze tension wires that yielded before fragile threads could snap, and razor-edged flakes of volcanic obsidian knapped to slice away intrusive petrified silt without snagging underlying plies. Her custom kit proved so effective that she recovered over three hundred intact municipal rolls from collapsed vaults deemed totally lost by the high architects. In gratitude, the Grand Council of Hanan-Pacha codified her tool roll as the definitive archival pattern, mandating that every forensic scribe, vault-digger, and khipu-willaq apprentice carry an exact replica bearing Ch’aska’s personal cipher stitched into the leather lining.
* The specific kit carried by Illari holds deep ancestral significance within this scribal lineage. While the soft leather wrapper, bronze cord-clamps, and repair spools have been renewed across generations, the oldest instrument nestled in the fifth pocket—a hand-rubbed bone knot-pick yellowed to the shade of aged pine resin—is an original heirloom shaped by Ch’aska herself during her sixth season in the scar. Passed down matrilinially from mother to daughter across four generations, the pick was bequeathed to Illari by her grandmother upon her acceptance into the scribal academy, awarded solely because Illari demonstrated the preternatural pulse stillness required to tease apart micro-hitches without trembling. In the tense political climate of Hanan-Pacha, this kit is viewed with equal parts reverence and suspicion; while curators celebrate its ability to mend shattered ancestral cords, city bailiffs and corrupt patricians recognize that the selfsame picks and tension wires that unknot ancient history can silently bypass the tumblers of a municipal treasury lock in seconds.
Item Specifications
* Item Name: Knot-Pick Roll of Mama Ch’aska 3528 * Tool Type: Fine-Work Kit (Knot-Picks, Etching Styluses, and Repair Tools) * Specific Slot: Waist Belt Slot: Carried rolled and tied with its crimson cord to the waist belt (counts as a single carried item; individual tools are held in one or both hands during active use; individual picks can also dock in the wrist loops of Knot-Guard Bracers) * Tier: 1 (Common) * Required Training: Lockwork and Fine Mechanisms or Rune Inscription * Attunement: Handheld (instantaneous upon drawing and holding any single tool from the roll) * Item Health Points: 10 plus the avatar’s maximum health points (Resilience 10) * Weight: 1.5 pounds * Suggested Value: 80 silver
Tier One Stats
* Dexterity: +1 * Intelligence: +1
Skills Gained While Openly Worn or Held
* Lockwork and Fine Mechanisms: +1 temporary skill point * Rune Inscription: +1 temporary skill point * Textile Crafting: +1 temporary skill point
Multiple Passives Magic
* Knot and Lock Mastery: The balanced weight and tactile feedback of the bone picks and bronze tension wires eliminate improvised tool penalties. The wielder gains seamless technical leverage across both complex textile knots and mechanical tumbler locks, allowing delicate manipulation in complete darkness without tactile disorientation. * Untie the Bind: Once per turn as a free action, whenever the wielder is restrained, grappled, or entangled by ropes, cords, leather thongs, netting, or woven magical bindings, they may slip a pick into the binding hitch, gaining advantage on all ability checks or saving throws made to escape or sever the restraint. * Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness: While grasping any tool from the roll, residual muscle-memory from the kit’s lineage stabilizes the bearer’s hands. Involuntary hand tremors, shivering from hypothermia, and tactile aim penalties caused by pain or physical exhaustion are completely suppressed during fine-motor tasks. * Resonant Scribe Channel: The volcanic obsidian styluses cut through slate, seasoned hardwood, leather, bone, and soft non-ferrous metals with minimal physical resistance, automatically tracing geomantic stress vectors to prevent the inscription surface from fracturing or chipping during rune-carving. * Micro-Tension Feedback: When picking a lock or loosening an ancient knot, subtle harmonic vibrations travel up the bronze tension wires directly into the wielder’s nerve endings, granting early tactile warning whenever a lock tumbler is rigged with a poison needle, spring-blade, or acoustic tripwire before the trap can discharge.
Multiple Activatable Magics
* Cord Mending: 1 charge, recharges daily at dawn. As a 10-minute focused ritual, the wielder chants an ancient Pacha-Qosqo restorative cadence while splicing the undyed repair fiber into a torn cord, broken strap, snapped bowstring, or damaged textile item. The ritual restores 1d4 + tier die health points (1d4 at Tier 1) to the item. Any woven or corded item reduced to half its health points or fewer immediately loses the broken condition once its health is restored above that threshold. * Seam-Splitter Strike: 2 charges, recharges daily at dawn. As an action during close combat, the wielder drives a tempered bronze pick into the weak joint, rivet seam, or structural mortar of an enemy’s armor, construct plating, or stony hide. Make a melee attack roll using Dexterity; on a hit, the strike deals 1d4 piercing damage and wedges open the protective plate, reducing the target’s Armor Class or physical damage threshold by 1 until repaired or until the end of the encounter. * Glyph of Swift Tethering: 1 charge, recharges daily at dawn. As an action, the wielder uses an obsidian stylus to etch a hasty three-stroke Pacha-Qosqo glyph into a stone, wooden, or dirt surface. The glyph arms instantly; the next hostile creature to step within 5 feet triggers an eruption of spectral woven cordage that forces a Dexterity saving throw (DC 13) or inflicts the Restrained condition for 1 minute (an affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns). * Unravel Woven Ward: 1 charge, recharges daily at dawn. As an action requiring 1 minute of uninterrupted work, the wielder slips an ancestral bone pick into an active magical knot, glyph-woven tapestry, or textile-based spell focus. The wielder makes an Intelligence (Arcana or Rune Inscription) check against the spell’s DC; on a success, the active magical effect or ward is safely suppressed for 1 hour without triggering its defensive backlash.
Specific Slot
* Waist Belt Slot: Carried rolled and tied in its soft leather case on the waist belt; individual tools are held in one or both hands during active work (individual picks may ride docked in the wrist loops of Knot-Guard Bracers).
Tags
Fine-Work Kit, Knot-Pick Roll, Mama Ch’aska, Lockwork Tools, Rune Inscription, Cord Mending, Obsidian Stylus, Waist Belt, Tier 1, Hanan Pacha, Rockfall Salvage, Bone Knot-Pick, Tension Wires, Cord Clamps, Untie the Bind, Ancestral Heirloom, Seam-Splitter, Swift Tethering, Ward Unraveler, Pulse-Stillness, Micro-Tension Feedback, Textile Restoration
Acquisition and Commerce of the Knot-Pick Roll of Mama Ch’aska 3528
* Acquisition through avatar possession occurs when an incoming player soul projects into the atmospheric mantle of Saṃsāra and claims an unpossessed native host in the mountain province of Andean who practices lockwork, fine lapidary, or archival salvage. Apprentices assigned to the restoration vaults of Hanan-Pacha, junior structural engineers, and catacomb scavengers routinely carry pattern 3528 tied to their waist belts. When a soul initiates possession of an unpossessed artisan or delve-scavenger carrying the kit, the transfer succeeds on an even result on a d4. Following the transient amnesia of soul-arrival, the awakened avatar assumes control of the host body with the leather roll, all internal tools, and personal belongings immediately secured for active play without spending silver.
* Acquisition through archival commission or salvage contract takes place when the Keepers of the Long Cord, the Guild of Fine Mechanicians, or municipal restoration boards in Hanan-Pacha commission operatives for dangerous subterranean recovery. When adventuring groups are contracted to enter unstable shelf faults, navigate sulfur fissures around the Rockfall scar, or retrieve intact historical khipus from collapsed vault chambers, the commissioning scriptorium officially issues a Knot-Pick Roll of Mama Ch’aska as essential salvage gear. Successfully completing the expedition—such as bringing back intact pre-cataclysm tribute rolls or bypassing collapsed lock-gates without damaging trapped archival bundles—results in the archival council permanently deeding ownership of the roll to the character alongside formal guild commendations.
* Acquisition through artisan crafting requires an advanced fine-mechanics workbench fitted with non-magnetic bronze anvils, micro-vises, and oil-quenching baths. The artisan must meet the following minimum training thresholds: * Lockwork and Fine Mechanisms: Skill level 4 * Rune Inscription or Qosqo-Khipu Knot Reading: Skill level 3 * Lapidary or Flintknapping: Skill level 3 * Leatherworking and Textile Crafting: Skill level 2 * The required raw materials comprise: one strip of oil-tanned buckskin leather (12 by 24 inches), three feet of crimson highland wool cord, four polished vicuña leg-bone blanks, two ounces of phosphor-bronze wire and bar stock, three nodules of high-purity volcanic black obsidian, fifty yards of undyed agave repair fiber wound onto a cedar spool, and an intact Tier 1 magic crystal catalyst. Over an uninterrupted ten-minute transference ritual, the artisan channels arcane resonance through the catalyst into the arranged tools, dissolving the crystal into an indigo vapor that permanently bonds the Knot and Lock Mastery, Untie the Bind, Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness, and Cord Mending properties into the kit.
* Acquisition through combat recovery and dungeon delve salvage occurs when characters encounter rogue guild-breakers, tomb-delvers, or corrupted vault overseers in subterranean ruins. When an unpossessed mortal scavenger or lock-thief carrying the roll is slain, their body remains intact, allowing party members to unlace the crimson cord and claim the leather kit directly from the waist belt. If the defeated foe was an active avatar host possessed by an external soul, reaching zero health points causes the physical vessel to burst into purple soul-sparks, dropping its Tier 1 soul crystal and all carried inventory—including the Knot-Pick Roll—directly onto the floor for field recovery.
* Archival scriptoriums, mechanicians’ guildhalls, and scribal supply shops in Hanan-Pacha represent the standard civic marketplaces for this fine-work kit. Because these civic institutions produce the rolls according to Ch’aska’s original archival patterns, they retail them at their standard baseline value of 80 silver (equivalent to 8 gold coins or 16 electrum). Independent, unaligned buyers pay the full 80 silver. A buyer holding recognized rank within an associated scribal, engineering, or artisan guild receives a standard 10% discount multiplied by their character tier level; a Tier 1 guild member pays 72 silver, while a Tier 2 member pays 64 silver. When liquidating a recovered kit back to an archival bursar or guild merchant, the standard institutional markdown of 10% multiplied by the seller’s tier level applies: a Tier 1 seller receives 90% of base value (72 silver), while a Tier 2 seller receives 80% (64 silver), with payments settled electronically into the seller’s World Bank account.
* Mountain mining exchanges, tunnel-survey depots, and frontier caravanserais near Peakhold and the Rockfall approaches stock these tool rolls as essential survival and fine-extraction gear. Prospectors, delvers, and bridge engineers prize the kit for clearing compacted silt from pulley blocks, resetting trapped detonator pins, and repairing frayed lift cables. Because transporting fine tools up high mountain switchbacks carries logistic risks, frontier vendors sell the roll at marked-up prices ranging from 95 silver to 115 silver (9.5 to 11.5 gold coins). Guild-affiliated explorers apply their standard tier discounts against this marked-up base. Frontier depots buying surplus kits from returning delve parties offer between 50 silver and 60 silver, deducting refurbishing costs to resharpen obsidian tips and replace frayed cordage.
* Coastal curiosity salons, maritime outfitting houses, and aristocratic antiquities salons in lowland commercial hubs (such as Aterian, Assyria, or Magdalenian) market the Knot-Pick Roll as an exotic curio and forensic collector’s piece. Moving delicate mountain hand-tools eastward against prevailing oceanic shipping currents adds marine cargo insurance, dock transfer surcharges, and import handling fees. Lowland dealers display the roll alongside highland khipus in glass cases, retailing them to noble collectors, naval rigging masters, and master locksmiths for 160 silver to 200 silver (16 to 20 gold coins). An adventuring party selling an intact, certified roll in a coastal trade hub can negotiate liquidation prices between 115 silver and 135 silver in World Bank funds, as dealers anticipate generous margins from wealthy urban connoisseurs.
* Illicit underground pawnshops, rogue guild hideouts, and black-market lock-houses operating within the catacombs of Peakhold or concealed mining settlements trade actively in pattern 3528. Burglars, tomb-looters, and covert saboteurs seek the kit for its silent micro-tension feedback and its ability to bypass warded mechanisms without triggering acoustic alarms. All black-market transactions are executed strictly in physical coinage—primarily unclipped gold and silver coins—bypassing World Bank monitoring. Purchasing a roll from a shadow-fence carries a surcharge for anonymity, costing between 90 silver and 120 silver. When fencing a stolen or uncataloged roll to an underworld dealer, the standard payout is 72 silver; however, if the fence has an immediate contract from a master burglar targeting a warded municipal vault, they will pay upwards of 130 silver to 150 silver (13 to 15 gold coins) in hard coin for an intact roll containing an authentic bone pick.
* Statutory municipal taxes and transit duties govern all legitimate trade involving the Knot-Pick Roll. Any merchant selling the kit within a Central City, Provincial Capital, or chartered Town must remit a 3% municipal sales tax (2.4 silver on the 80 silver base) to the local revenue magistracy. Consignments brought through city gates or river docks incur a 1% transit fee, in addition to the standard individual traveler entry levy of 1 silver per person. Transporting the roll across sovereign provincial boundaries incurs a 5% border tariff based on assessed value. Foreign travelers, unregistered outlanders, and non-citizen traders pay double these statutory rates, facing a 6% sales tax and a 10% border levy. Failing to present formal receipts or attempting to conceal the fine-work kit from municipal gate wardens results in immediate seizure of the roll by customs bailiffs until outstanding levies and penal fines are paid in full.
Tactical Environmental Roleplay for Defense and Offense with the Knot-Pick Roll of Mama Ch’aska
* Within subterranean vaults, collapsed archive shelves, and the fractured fissures of the Rockfall scar, the kit operates as a surgical extraction set and close-quarters armor breaker. * Defensive Roleplay: When seismic tremors cause cave-ins that trap party members beneath fallen slabs, the user draws the yellowed bone knot-pick to clear compacted scree and tease pinned lifelines free from stone crevices without snapping brittle fibers. In pitch-black chambers where cold drafts and hypothermia cause involuntary trembling, Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness stabilizes the wielder’s fingers, ensuring rock-steady precision while picking rusted iron gates. If an ancient chest or pressure door is rigged with a hair-trigger spring blade or poison needle, the Micro-Tension Feedback transmits an autonomic buzz up the bronze tension wire into the user’s fingertips, warning them to back off before the trap trips. If lift-cables or breathing-harness straps tear under falling rocks, the 10-minute Cord Mending ritual restores structural integrity to the gear. * Offensive Roleplay: In tight, damp tunnels against chitinous burrowers, stone mites, or armored tomb guardians, the user grips a tempered bronze pick to execute a Seam-Splitter Strike, driving the tool directly into the creature’s joint gap or mortar seam to pry open its protective plating and expose soft tissue to party weapon strikes. In narrow passages, the user uses an obsidian stylus to etch a three-stroke Glyph of Swift Tethering onto the stone floor; when pursuing cavern beasts charge through the corridor, the glyph erupts with spectral cordage, restraining the front-runner and turning the chokepoint into a kill zone.
* Along high-altitude mountain precipices, wind-swept suspension bridges, and sheer climbing faces, the tools provide fall-arrest security and vertical sabotage. * Defensive Roleplay: High mountain winds and freezing sleet often stiffen fingers and freeze climbing lines into rigid ropes. Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness suppresses shivering and numbness while working cold metal clamps into belay ropes. If a party member slips and becomes snarled in a tangled, choking safety line over a fatal drop, Untie the Bind allows the user to slip a bone pick into the cinched knot, loosening the bind with a single motion to free the climber before the cord cuts off circulation. When guide-lines or bridge stays fray against sharp granite edges, the user applies Cord Mending to weave agave repair fiber into the core, renewing the rope’s health points before the party crosses. * Offensive Roleplay: During vertical battles along cliffside ascents, the user leverages the kit for tactical sabotage. Scurrying above enemy climbers, the user uses an obsidian stylus to score hairline stress fractures across the mountain raiders’ piton moorings or tension ropes, causing the anchors to shear under combat loads. If enemy scouts stage an ambush along a narrow ridge trail, the user scratches a Glyph of Swift Tethering into the cliff rock; hostile flankers rounding the corner are instantly snared by phantom highland cordage, leaving them dangling helpless over the precipice.
* In municipal scriptoriums, aristocratic council halls, and high-security civic vaults, the roll functions as a discreet escape kit and covert counter-audit apparatus. * Defensive Roleplay: Carried rolled and tied in soft leather at the waist belt, the kit appears as an innocuous scholar’s mending case, easily passing municipal weapons inspections where daggers and clubs are confiscated. If the party is arrested, framed, or captured by corrupt bailiffs and bound in manacles or raw leather thongs, the user slips a miniature bone pick from the roll or from the wrist loop of a Knot-Guard Bracer; Untie the Bind provides immediate advantage to unpick the locking ratchets or release tension hitches, freeing the character in seconds while the guards are distracted. * Offensive Roleplay: In covert heist or counter-audit operations, the kit bypasses municipal barriers without violence. The bronze tension wires and hooked picks allow silent, zero-damage manipulation of multi-pin treasury locks, granting entry into sealed record crypts. When corrupt magistrates maintain private archives protected by enchanted cord-seals, the user invokes Unravel Woven Ward, working an ancestral bone pick into the ward-knot for one minute to safely suppress the alarm matrix for an hour, allowing the team to inspect illicit ledgers without alerting the municipal guard.
* Within geothermal boiler galleries, sulfuric vent fields, and active steam calderas, the kit mitigates environmental decay and facilitates mechanical manipulation. * Defensive Roleplay: Superheated steam and acidic sulfur fumes corrode metal tools and disintegrate organic materials. The obsidian styluses and bone picks are completely impervious to acid etching and non-magnetic lode pulls, allowing delicate maintenance on steam-turbine valves where iron tools would spark or seize. When sulfur acid dissolves respirator straps or safety harnesses, Cord Mending rebuilds the burned weave on the spot, preventing catastrophic exposure to boiling vapors. * Offensive Roleplay: When battling geothermal constructs or sulfur-crust hounds in boiling mud fields, the user uses Structural Stress Sight (via lenses) alongside the roll’s obsidian styluses to scratch rapid destabilization glyphs directly into pressurized basalt pipes or crust domes. Striking the scored line with a Seam-Splitter Strike vents superheated steam or boiling brine into an enemy’s flank. If an enemy warrior wears heavy plate in the sulfur field, wedging a pick into their armor joints with Seam-Splitter Strike strips away their seal, letting toxic steam leak directly into their padding.
* Inside sealed crypts, warded tomb mazes, and ancient clockwork labyrinths, the tools serve as an anti-trap kit and arcane dampener. * Defensive Roleplay: Ancient catacombs are frequently laced with tensioned trip-cords, counterbalance pulleys, and glyph-woven funerary tapestries designed to collapse ceilings on intruders. The user slips the slender bronze tension wires into hidden wall slots to feel for spring tension, safely neutralizing mechanical trigger pins before party members enter the corridor. When facing supernatural curses tied into ritual burial knots or necrotic linen wrappings, the user spends one minute using Unravel Woven Ward to unwind the necromantic knotwork, neutralizing the curse without releasing death-spores into the chamber. * Offensive Roleplay: When combating animated clockwork automata, brass guardians, or skeletal sentinels bound by sinew-cords, the user executes a Seam-Splitter Strike, hammering a bronze pick into gear housings or sinew joints to jam internal clockwork and reduce the construct’s Armor Class. To control the battlefield against swarming tomb horrors, the wielder scribes a Glyph of Swift Tethering across the crypt threshold, ensnaring the lead monster in spectral bindings and isolating the remaining foes for easy elimination.
Perception of Activation:
* User’s Perspective: * When untying the crimson cord and unfurling the soft leather, you feel an immediate, deeply grounding chill, followed by a faint, rhythmic heartbeat pulsing through the material as your skin touches the ancient, hand-stitched name of Mama Ch’aska Khipurana. Selecting any tool—whether the yellowed bone knot-pick, a cool bronze tension wire, or a glossy obsidian stylus—initiates an immediate “Pulse-Stillness” in your hands. A subtle, comforting numbness sweeps through your fingers, freezing involuntary tremors, shivering, or fatigue, replacing them with a highly responsive, microscopic sensitivity. * While using the picks or wires for “Knot and Lock Work,” the physical friction is translated into your nervous system; you feel the metallic click of tumblers and the tension of cord fiber as varying pitches of musical notes and small resistance tugs in your hand. * When initiating the “Cord Mending” ritual, your voice vibrates with a singing resonance as you chant, the undyed repair fiber growing warm, almost feverish, between your thumbs as it binds with natural, oil-rich fiber fibers. Splicing it feels like guiding living, quickening vines, accompanied by the earthy aroma of old wool, lanolin, and a sharp metallic scent of ozone. * Engaging “Untie the Bind” produces an instant release of pressure, as if the tight cords trapping you have suddenly become greasy and loose, yielding to the bone pick with no resistance.
* Observer’s Perspective: * Onlookers watch as the dark leather roll is untied, the crimson cord falling loose, and the rows of small bone, bronze, and obsidian tools catching the light. As the user begins their task, the hand-sewn, multicolored Pacha-Qosqo glyphs on the inner lining ignite with a steady, pulsing indigo-violet phosphorescence, casting a soft, cool glow over the workspace and the wielder’s hands. * During the “Cord Mending” ritual, as the user chants, faint, glowing violet threads appear to hover around their fingers, guided by the ancient yellowed bone pick. Observers can see loose, frayed fibers visibly crawling, aligning, and knitting back together like rapid, organic growth as the undyed fiber fuses with the broken item. * If “Untie the Bind” is used, the observer see a flurry of movement as a pick is slipped into the bindings; then, with impossible fluidity, the cinched knots seem to collapse and slide apart on their own, the heavy ropes or nets falling away as if they had instantly lost their grip. * To those watching, the wielder’s hand is completely, unnaturally still—possessing a robotic, steady gaze as they execute intricate, silent mechanical lockwork.
* Extra-Sensory Perceptions: * Through the Mind’s Eye, you perceive a geometric visual grid of structural and spiritual tension overlaid upon knots and mechanisms. Tight, heavily stressed nodes or trapped magical wards flare with warning shades of crimson and orange, while loose or natural escape hitches appear in glowing sapphire-blue, tracing the exact sequence of movements needed to unravel the target. * Psychometric Echoes: Gripping the yellowed bone pick floods your mind with a sensory imprint of damp, sulfur-choked caverns, the heavy, vibrating boom of falling granite from the Rockfall scar, and the intense, exhausting focus of Mama Ch’aska salvage expeditions, letting you “remember” how to gently free crushed, century-old thread without snapping it. * Under True Sight, the obsidian styluses are enveloped in a sharp, crystalline field of dark, earth-resonant energy that splits visual distortion and natural material grain, allowing your eyes to guide the incision of Khipu-Glyphs along natural faults and stress planes. * Acoustic Resonance: When picking locks or loosening heavily cinched ropes, a subterranean drone or faint humming vibrates through your jaw and teeth, alerting you to microscopic triggers, spring-blades, and alarm wards before they can catch the picks. * Temporal Resonance: Splicing threads with the “Cord Mending” spell feels like pulling a tapestry of time back together, briefly letting you “hear” the ancestral voices and histories that were bound into the original cords before they were broken.
* Positives: * Grants perfect, tremor-free motor precision under stressful, frozen, or exhausting environmental conditions through Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness. * The Knot and Lock Mastery eliminates improvised tool penalties, making the wielder equally proficient with complex textile knots and mechanical tumbler locks. * Gives advantage on all escape or unraveling checks from bindings via Untie the Bind. * Restores physical health to broken cords, straps, bowstrings, and woven gear with the Cord Mending spell. * Natural obsidian and bone construction bypasses non-ferrous metal detectors and magnetic anomalies within deep subterranean vaults.
* Negatives: * The intense, immersive tactile feedback can cause “tunnel vision,” leaving the user visually and auditorily isolated from their immediate surroundings during fine-work. * Persistent use can cause mild sensory overload or fatigue as the user’s mind continues to echo with the ancestral “noise” of historical collapse events and buried memories. * The bioluminescent indigo-violet glow from the activated inscription can instantly alarm sentries or highlight the user’s location in stealth situations. * Physical strain is transferred to the tools; forcing heavy leverage can chip delicate bone or obsidian points, requiring repairs using the selfsame roll or expert lapidary help. * The Cord Mending ritual requires ten uninterrupted minutes of chanting and work, making it impossible to apply as a rapid, combat-time fix.
Crafting Recipe: Knot-Pick Roll of Mama Ch’aska 3528
Materials Needed
* Oil-Tanned Buckskin Leather: One strip of soft, dark buckskin or goat leather (approximately 12 by 24 inches) to serve as the protective outer roll, chosen for its flexibility, water resistance, and durability.
* Crimson Highland Wool Cord: Three feet of tightly spun, triple-ply crimson wool cord, used as the external fastening tie, dyed with highland cochineal for color fastness.
* Vicuña Leg-Bone Blanks: Four dense, marrow-rich leg-bone blanks taken from a wild vicuña or llama, carefully aged and dried to prevent splintering, for shaping the fine, hooked knot-picks.
* Phosphor-Bronze Wire and Bar Stock: Two ounces of high-tensile, non-ferrous phosphor-bronze to forge the springy tension wires, fine cord-clamps, and custom pointed picks.
* Volcanic Black Obsidian Nodules: Three high-purity nodules of natural black obsidian, to be knapped and flaked into razor-sharp, fine-pointed etching styluses.
* Spun Agave Repair Fiber: Fifty yards of tough, undyed agave bast fiber, wound tightly around a miniature cedar spool.
* Multicolored Natural Embroidery Thread: Various hanks of spun wool and plant fibers, dyed in traditional liturgical shades, to stitch the protective Qosqo-Khipu patterns and Mama Ch’aska’s name.
* Tier 1 Magic Crystal Catalyst: One intact, coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystal, sacrificed during the final consecration to bind Ch’aska’s ancestral memory, the spell matrices, and the Pulse-Stillness into the kit.
Tools Required
* Fine Leather-Sewing Awl and Needle: A hand-held steel or bone awl, paired with heavy waxed thread and sail-grade needles, for punching, binding, and stitching the leather and pockets.
* Micro-Jeweler’s Brazier and Blowpipe: A miniature charcoal-fired hearth, used with an angled brass blowpipe, to heat-treat, forge, and solder the bronze components.
* Flintknapping Pressure Flaker: An antler-tined or soft-metal pressure flaker, used to precisely flake the obsidian nodules into micro-styluses without shattering the natural volcanic glass.
* Watchmaker’s Pliers and Peening Mallet: Miniature, smooth-jaw bronze pliers and an antler-faced mallet for bending, riveting, and tensioning the wire and picks.
* Abrasive Sandstone and Diamond Slurry: Fine-grit natural sandstone and diamond-dust slurry, used for grinding, shaping, and polishing the bone, bronze, and obsidian to smooth, microscopic tolerances.
* Fine-Tension Test Rig: A simple wooden test stand containing taut cords of varying thickness and several loose, un-encased lock tumbler cylinders, used to calibrate the tactile resonance of the picks and tension wires.
Skill Requirements
* Lockwork and Fine Mechanisms: A minimum trained skill level of 4 or 5, needed to shape and align the bronze tension wires and picks to successfully bypass complex, warded tumbler locks.
* Rune Inscription / Khipu reading: A minimum trained skill level of 3, required to scribe the microscopic glyphs, properly sew the Qosqo-Khipu signature, and align the restorative Cord Mending spell.
* Lapidary or Flintknapping: A minimum trained skill level of 3, necessary to flake the volcanic obsidian into fine, needle-sharp etching tips without fracture.
* Leatherworking and Textile Crafting: A minimum trained skill level of 2, required to cut, stitch, and line the buckskin roll, and to braid the crimson cord.
* Alchemical/Arcane Material Infusion: A minimum trained skill level of 2, to safely dissolve and bind the catalyst crystal into the composite tools through focused chant.
Crafting Steps
* Phase One: Preparing the Leather Roll and Pocket Lining * Cut the oil-tanned buckskin to a 12-by-24-inch rectangle, skiving the edges to reduce bulk. Fold and sew the bottom third of the leather inward to create a deep, continuous sleeve. * Vertical seams are stitched into the sleeve using heavily waxed thread, forming rows of snug, custom pockets designed to keep the picks, wires, and styluses from rubbing together. * Double-stitch the outer borders, attaching the three-foot crimson wool cord to the outer center of the roll to serve as the binding tie when the kit is closed.
* Phase Two: Embroidery of the Name and Arcane Attunement Glyph * Transfer Mama Ch’aska’s Qosqo-Khipu name and protective patterns onto the inside upper flap of the unrolled leather using a chalk tracer. * Using the multicolored embroidery thread, hand-sew the dense, intricate glyphic patterns through the leather. * Tighten and seal each stitch with a dab of natural resin, ensuring the patterns are securely anchored to form the future bio-resonant circuit.
* Phase Three: Carving and Forging the Pick and Wire Set * Take the dried vicuña bone blanks and rough-cut them into slender splinters using a small hand-saw. Grind the ends into smooth hooks, hooks, and rounded spade-points on the abrasive sandstone, finishing them with diamond slurry to ensure there are no sharp burrs to snag delicate fibers. * Heat the bronze wire and bar stock in the brazier, hammer-drawing it into fine, springy tension wires and pointed picks. Quench them in mineral oil to temper the alloy, and file the tips to smooth, needle-thin tolerances. * Test the flexibility of each bronze wire on the test rig, ensuring they can transmit the micro-tension feedback to the hands without bending out of shape.
* Phase Four: Knapping the Obsidian and Spool Winding * Using the pressure flaker, carefully strike fine, long flakes from the obsidian nodules. Trim and pressure-flake them into needle-thin, double-edged etching styluses with robust, tapering bases. * Fit the obsidian bases into short, grooved bone or hardwood handles, binding them tightly with waxed fiber and sealing the joints with warm birch pitch. * Wind the 50 yards of agave repair fiber onto the tiny cedar spool, and set the spool and small bronze cord-clamps into their designated pockets.
* Phase Five: The Catalytic Transference and Consecration Ritual * Place the unrolled, populated kit flat on a stone altar, centering the Tier 1 Magic Crystal Catalyst directly over the hand-stitched signature on the interior flap. * The artisan touches the tools and the catalyst with their fingertips, completing the bio-resonant loop, and chants the ancient restorative Pacha-Qosqo cadences of the Deep Vaults for ten minutes. * The catalyst crystal glows intensely before dissolving into an indigo and violet vapor, absorbing entirely into the leather fibers, the stitching, and the bone and metal tools. * Roll a d20 to verify the stability of the magical transference: * A roll of 1 results in material fracture; the thermal shock fractures the obsidian styluses or shears the leather stitches, requiring the artisan to replace the damaged pieces from Phase Two or Four. * A roll of 2 through 19 confirms a stable binding, permanently locking the Knot and Lock Mastery, Untie the Bind, Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness, and Cord Mending properties into the kit. * A roll of 20 results in masterwork resonance, granting +1 additional daily charge to Cord Mending and enhancing the escape bonuses of Untie the Bind. * Validate the finished item, verifying that its total weight is exactly 1.5 pounds, the tools rest securely without slipping, and the embroidered name pulses with a faint indigo light when a hand is brought near.
Eleven Cold Frosts of Mother Ch’aska in Broken Mouth of Earth
or Little Bag of Sharp Bones Wherewith She Plucked Breath of Ancestors from Teeth of Falling Rock
Now this is the setting-down of that speech which was copied four times by men who had no ink but the water of boiled roots, taken from the mouth of the old woman who dwelt in the hole of the sulfur-terrace, having in it many broken words of the ancient craft-tongue which no clerk of the lower towns can pronounce without spitting:
In the year when the great teeth of the mountain did close together upon the belly of Turrath—which in the coarse mouth of the ditch-diggers is called the Scar of the Shaking—the stone sky fell upon the stone floor. Seven high storehouses of the writing-strings were caught between the two jaws of the rock, like an ear of yellow corn between the upper grinding-slab and the lower bench. In those rooms were stored the speaking-hair of five hundred winters: the tallies of the silver-washers, the names of the water-gates, the true hitches of the stars which tell the women when the seed-potato must be laid in the furrow, and the great long cord of the First Mothers which had three thousand red pendants tied with the knots of the sky.
Then the Archival Overseers of the high city Hanan-Pacha were struck with a madness of terror. They ran to the edge of the crack with great shouts, having their mantles torn and their faces smeared with the grey lime of the broken lime-kilns. They called down into the dark: “Bring the heavy bronze wedges! Bring the great iron levers that are five men long! Bring thirty span of the heavy oxen from the salt-pans! Strike the stone until it breaks, that we may pull forth the hair of the city before the water from the sulfur-spring fills the hollows!”
And the quarry-slaves came with thirty-pound sledgehammers of dark river-iron and wedges of cold bronze. They began to smite the great blocks that lay upon the archive shelves. The sound was like the clapping of thunder in an empty copper kettle. But wherever the heavy hammers struck, the rock did not part in peace; it broke into five thousand jagged knives. The ancient cords, which had grown dry and frail as the wings of the dead locust from resting sixty winters in the soot of the tallow-pots, were cut to chaff beneath the shattered slate. When the laborers dragged out a basket of rubble, there was nothing in the bottom but pulverized stone and gray lint, no bigger than the down that flies from the head of a dried thistle. The names of forty generations of canal-builders were made into dust and blown away over the ravine by the mountain wind.
Then Mama Ch’aska Khipurana, who was not yet an elder but had sat seven seasons at the feet of the grandmother of the knots, stood forth upon the shattered ramp. Her hands were small, like the hands of a girl who weaves the neck-bands for little children, but the bones of her wrists were wide and flat.
She laid her palms upon the great sledge of the Head Overseer and said unto him: “Get you gone from this hole, you breaker of stone-pots. You are striking the belly of your mother with an axe to find if she has eaten her breakfast. You have the hands of a wild hog that digs for roots in a garden of lilies; for every basket of slate you drag into the sun, you kill ten grandfathers whose mouths were tied into the wool. Stand back upon the dry gravel, and give me only the oil of the lamp and the skin of my bed, and let me go down into the throat where the rock is biting.”
The Overseer was a man who had three rings of yellow gold pinned through his ears, and he laughed until the fat of his neck shook. He said: “The mountain is three hundred cubits deep, and the ceiling is resting upon the floor by the width of three fingers. What will a woman do in that dark with her fingers? Will she push the mountain into the sky with her spinning-stick?”
Ch’aska did not pick up an angry stone to cast at his forehead. She took from her girdle only her little spindle-basket, and she crawled on her belly into the black fissure where the hot sulfur-grease was dripping from the ceiling.
She did not come out when the sun went behind the snow-peaks. She did not come out when the frost-fog filled the gorge like milk. She remained in the cold crack through the season of the hail, and through the season of the yellow grass, until she had counted eleven turnings of the cold stars in that place where no candle can burn for more than an hour without choking on the damp vapor of the earth.
In the second season of her sitting, when she saw that the great basalt slabs were resting upon the cords like heavy sleepers whose elbows cannot be stirred, she knew that no tool of the marketplace would serve. The bronze nails of the smiths were too thick; when they touched the old alpaca-hair, the dry thread would split like dry straw. The flint points of the skin-scrapers were too jagged; they bit the loops and left them ragged like an old fleece that has been dragged through a briar-patch.
Therefore she sat by the little flame of her stone grease-pot and made tools out of the refuse of the tomb.
From the leg-bone of a sacrificial vicuña—which had lain ninety years upon the altar-terrace until the marrow had dried to white chalk and the bone had turned the color of seasoned pine-rosin—she cut slender slivers with a piece of string dipped in wet diamond-grit. She scraped these slivers upon the flat sandstone until they were round and smooth as the quills of a porcupine. With her own teeth she smoothed the ends, turning them into little hooks so fine that they could slip between the plies of a double-twist without disturbing a single fiber of the wool. She made four of these: one with a straight needle for feeling the heart of the knot; one with an inward hook like the claw of a badger for pulling out the buried loop; one with a flat spade-tail for clearing away the caked dust; and one which was shaped like the tongue of a swallow, with two ears, wherewith she could hold a broken hitch while her mouth was spitting water upon the thread.
Then she took the wire of tin-bronze which the miners used to hang their oil-cups. She did not heat it in a blacksmith’s blaze, for fire makes the bronze hard and stubborn like an ungelded llama. She beat it cold between two river-pebbles, working it for three moons until it was thin as the whisker of a cat, yet having that soft, creeping temper which will bend around three corners without snapping. These she shaped into tension loops, so that she might push them into the narrow slit between two blocks of fallen granite, and feel whether the object lying in the dark was a lump of mud or the neck-cord of an archive.
And because the hard petrified slime of the sulfur-springs had cemented many bundles into solid stone, she took three stones of the black volcanic glass—the heavy, oily obsidian that comes out of the burning throat of the snow-cone where the mountain vomits fire. With an elk-horn punch she flaked the edges by the light of her eye alone, making three little styluses with points so sharp that if a fly were to walk upon the edge, it would be cut into two flies. With these she could pare away the petrified silt from the wool, hair by hair, as a barber scrapes the beard from the cheek of an elder, without cutting the purple skin beneath.
Now in her sixth season in the scar, when her knees had grown calloused like the feet of an ostrich from crawling upon the wet slate, she came to the deep chamber which had been the Office of the Great Canals.
There lay the Master Cord of the Seven High Ditches, which recorded how the water of the snow-mountain was to be parted among the four provinces. But upon the middle of the bundle lay a great stone of five hundred weight—a slab of blue-grey basalt that had fallen from the archway. The stone was balanced so delicately upon a tooth of limestone that if a man did but cough loudly in the passage, the tooth would crumble and the basalt would drop two inches, smashing the ancient record into gray meal forever.
The young apprentices who had come down to bring her parched maize cried out: “Mother, let it lie! The stone is too heavy, and the breath of the mountain is cold upon it. If you touch the knot, the rock will fall upon your skull and your blood will be pressed into the slate like oil!”
Ch’aska looked upon them with her eyes, which had grown wide and round like the eyes of an owl from living in the dark.
She said: “If I die, my daughters will find another woman to cook the parched corn; but if the Master Cord is broken, the people of the lower terraces will fight with copper hoes for the water of the high ditch until the ditches are filled with the bones of their cousins. Bring me the three cups of cold water, and sit you down upon the stair, and do not let your garments rustle.”
Then she lay upon her left side in the wet mud beneath the basalt tooth. For three days and three nights she did not rise to eat, and she did not turn her neck to spit.
She took the yellow bone pick—the one shaped from the thigh of the vicuña—in her right thumb and forefinger. She slipped the point into the crevice between the blue stone and the red cord. Her hand was as cold as the ice on the pool, yet it did not shake by the thickness of a hair; for the spirit of the still stone had passed into her marrow, so that her heart beat only once while an ordinary man would draw three breaths.
With the bone hook she felt the plies of the ancient cord. She found where the lime-dust had dried like plaster inside the main hitch. She did not tear it. She took a drop of water upon the tip of her obsidian lancet and touched it to the knot. She waited until the dry wool drank the water. Then, with the soft bronze wire, she hooked the under-strand and lifted it by the breadth of a needle’s eye.
On the second morning, the rock gave a small groan, like a dog that turns in its sleep, and a shower of fine grey sand fell upon her eyelids. The apprentices on the stair covered their heads with their mantles and cried that the mountain was falling; but Ch’aska did not wink her lids. She blew the sand from her nose with a short puff of her lip, and her yellow bone pick never moved from the loop.
On the third night, as the cold frost of the third hour entered the cave, she gave a slow, long draw of her wrist—not sudden, like a fisherman pulling his line, but slow as the crawling of a snail upon a damp leaf. The Master Cord of the Seven High Ditches slid out from beneath the blue basalt, inch by inch, whole and unbroken, with all its two hundred pendant strings hanging clean, having every knot of the water-tallies firm in its place.
And as the last red thread cleared the stone, the limestone tooth gave way with a sound like the snap of a dry bone. The five-hundred-weight block fell with a great roar upon the flags where her breast had been lying; but Ch’aska was already rolled into the drainage ditch, holding the great bundle to her belly with both elbows, laughing with a throat that was full of the dry dust of the mountain.
When the eleven turnings of the cold stars were accomplished, Mama Ch’aska came up out of the Scar of the Shaking. She was carried upon a litter made of cedar poles, for her legs were bent from the dampness of the cleft; but in her lap she held three hundred and fourteen bundles of ancient khipus, all combed clean, washed of their sulfur-scabs, and having every broken fiber mended with the strong white thread of the wild agave.
The high magistrates of Hanan-Pacha came down to meet her with trumpets of conch-shell and vessels of fermented chicha. They would have given her a robe of feather-cloth and a necklace of silver snails; but she put them aside with her elbow.
She took from her belt a long piece of soft leather—the skin of a deer that had been tanned with the fat of the brain so that it was soft as an old rag and smelled of wood-smoke. She laid it upon the stone of the terrace. In the leather were sewn twenty little pockets of woven bast, each one made to hold a single needle of bone, a pick of bronze, or a blade of the black fire-glass. In the lower corner was a pocket for a spool of agave-gut, and along the upper border were five little sleeves for the bronze tension-springs.
She took an awl of cold iron and with her own hand she embroidered into the leather lining her own name in the knot-script: Mama Ch’aska Khipurana, Who Picked the Words from the Mouth of the Stone.
She spoke unto the assembled readers and the high catalogers: “Do not give me your feathers, which will be eaten by the moth before three winters are gone. But take this roll of deerskin and make forty copies of it, and forty copies of those forty, and give them to every girl who comes into the school of the strings. Teach them that an ox may break a house down with his horns, but it takes the spider to mend the web when the wind has torn it. And if any man comes to the archive with an iron pick to dig for the words of the ancestors, take this leather roll and beat him across the mouth until he learns how to touch the hair of the grandmothers.”
Now when Mama Ch’aska had lived until her hair was as white as the snow upon the crest, she called her three daughters to the side of her hearth.
She set upon the stone floor a shallow dish of bronze filled to the brim with clear water, and she said: “The earth is shaking today, for the deep chimneys are coughing. Let each of you take the old yellow bone pick—the one which I carved from the leg of the sacrificial camel in the dark of the scar—and let her hold the point of it one hair’s breadth above the water while the wall is groaning. She whose water does not make a ring of ripples shall have the bag.”
The first daughter took the bone, but her heart was fearful; when the floor gave a small tremor, her finger jumped, and the tip touched the pool, making many circles of silver.
The second daughter took the bone, and she was bold; but her blood was hot, and her pulse beat so hard in the ball of her thumb that the shadow of the bone danced upon the bronze like an insect.
Then came the third daughter, whose name was Khipu-Sisa, the mother of the grandmother of the maiden Illari. She took the bone between her two fingers. She did not look at the water; she looked at the mountain through the smoke-hole, and she drew the breath of the deep earth into her lungs. The great chimney beneath the city groaned, and the cups upon the shelf rattled like teeth; but the hand of the girl was like the roots of the cedar tree that grow into the granite. The surface of the pool remained like a mirror of black glass, having no ring, no ripple, and no trembling.
Then Mama Ch’aska laughed and tied the crimson cord around the leather roll with her own hand, and laid it into the lap of her daughter.
And from that winter until the world itself shall be untied by the Great Hand, that selfsame roll of soft deer-leather—having the yellowed bone hook in the fifth pocket, and the cold bronze wires that can feel through three corners—was passed from mother to daughter among the women who read the knots of Hanan-Pacha. And though the grandfathers in their pride buy great engines of brass and iron to keep their houses straight, it is this little roll of sharp bones that preserves the memory of the land; for when the proud stone falls, only the little pick of the woman can reach into the crevice and bring forth the name of the man who built it.
Moral of the Story: When the great stones of the world fall together in wrath, brute force and the heavy hammer will only smash the truth into dust; but patience, a steady pulse, and the smallest bone hook can reach into the jaws of the earth and pull forth the living memory of the people without breaking a single thread.
Suggested conversions to other systems:
Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition) Ch’aska’s Forensic Knot-Pick Kit (Roll 3528)
* Item Classification: Fine-Work Tool Kit & Hypergeometric Inscription Set (Waist Belt Slot: Carried rolled in its soft leather case at the belt; individual tools held in one or two hands during use; picks can dock into wrist bracers)
* Physical Profile: An oil-tanned dark leather roll secured by a crimson wool tie, containing bone picks of varied curvature, phosphor-bronze tension wires, pointed bronze picks, micro-cord clamps, knapped volcanic obsidian styluses, and a cedar spool wound with fifty yards of undyed agave repair fiber. Weight: 1.5 lbs.
* Applicable Skills: Locksmith, Art/Craft (Rune Inscription / Calligraphy / Textile), Mechanical Repair, Sleight of Hand, Spot Hidden
* Attunement: Instantaneous upon unrolling the kit and drawing any tool; requires training in Locksmith, Mechanical Repair, or Art/Craft.
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive Property): * Eliminates all penalties for lacking specialized tools. The user gains one Bonus Die on all Locksmith rolls to pick multi-tumbler locks, bypass mechanical clockwork safeties, or untie complex encoded knot-ciphers.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive Property): * Muscle-memory imbued within the kit suppresses physical tremors. The user ignores penalty dice on Locksmith, Sleight of Hand, or Art/Craft rolls caused by hypothermia, physical exhaustion, acute pain, or temporary Insanity/phobia-induced shaking.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive Trait): * Subtle vibrational feedback travels up the bronze tension wires, granting an automatic Regular Spot Hidden check to identify poison needles, spring-loaded blades, or acoustic tripwires hidden inside a lock before attempting to pick it.
* Untie the Bind (Passive / Free Maneuver): * Once per round, if restrained by ropes, netting, leather bindings, or webbing, the user may slip a bone pick into the knot as a free maneuver, gaining one Bonus Die on their STR or DEX roll to escape.
* Cord Mending (Active Hypergeometry): * Cost: 1 Magic Point; 1 charge per 24-hour cycle. * Effect: A 10-minute ritual chanting in Pacha-Qosqo while splicing repair fiber into damaged ropes, climbing harnesses, occult cord focuses, or woven armor. Restores 1d4+1 Structure/Hit Points to the item, removing the broken condition if restored above half its maximum health.
* Seam-Splitter Strike (Active Maneuver): * Uses: 2 charges per 24-hour cycle. * Effect: In close combat, the user attacks an armored opponent, vehicle seam, or construct joint using Fighting (Brawl) with a bronze pick (Damage: 1d3+DB). On a success, the strike wedges into the joint seam, permanently reducing the target’s armor value by 1 point (or 2 on an Extreme Success).
* Glyph of Swift Tethering (Active Hypergeometry): * Cost: 2 Magic Points; 1 charge per 24-hour cycle. * Effect: Scribe a three-stroke glyph onto stone, wood, or dirt with an obsidian stylus. The next hostile entity stepping within 2 yards triggers an eruption of spectral woven cordage; the target must succeed on a Hard DEX or STR check or become immobilized for 1d6 combat rounds.
* Unravel Woven Ward (Active Hypergeometry): * Cost: 2 Magic Points; 1 charge per 24-hour cycle. * Effect: Taking 1 full minute to slip an ancestral bone pick into an active magical glyph, textile focus, or warded knot-seal, the user rolls Art/Craft (Rune Inscription) or an opposed POW check against the caster’s POW. On a success, the ward or magical trap is safely suppressed for 1 hour without triggering.
Blades in the Dark Mama Ch’aska’s Fine Pick-Roll 3528
* Item Classification: Fine Infiltration & Tinker Kit (Fine Quality, 1 Load, worn at the belt or stowed in pockets)
* Quality and Tier: Tier I (Fine Quality, granting +1 effective Quality level to Tinker, Finesse, and Study actions involving locks, traps, textile codes, and micro-mechanisms).
* Item Traits: Fine (+1 Quality), Concealable, Precision, Fiber-Magic, Mending.
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive Quality): * Operates with increased Effect on Tinker rolls to pick multi-pin tumbler locks, disarm hair-trigger safeties, and unpick complex security knot-hitches without making noise.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive Quality): * You ignore the negative dice penalties from Level 1 or Level 2 Harm related to shivering, frostbite, panic, or trembling hands while engaged in fine manipulation or lockwork.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive Trait): * The fine bronze wires vibrate tactilely when touching internal trap pins; you operate with improved Position (such as Risky instead of Desperate) when working on booby-trapped mechanisms.
* Untie the Bind (Special Action): * When restrained by ropes, chains, manacles, or nets, you may deploy a pick with Potency to slip free or cut the binding without expending extra time or suffering Position loss.
* Cord Mending (Special Action): * Uses: 1 charge per score (or spend 1 Stress). * Effect: Spend 10 minutes performing a quiet restorative ritual with the agave spool. Fully repairs a torn rope, slashed glider wing, climbing harness, or damaged textile relic, clearing its broken or damaged status track.
* Seam-Splitter Strike (Special Action): * Uses: 2 charges per score (or spend 1 Stress). * Effect: In combat, use Finesse or Skirmish to wedge a bronze pick into an enemy’s armor rivet or clockwork seam. On a success, the target’s armor defense is lowered by 1 Tier for subsequent attacks made by your crew.
* Glyph of Swift Tethering (Special Action): * Uses: 1 charge per score (or spend 1 Stress). * Effect: Use an obsidian stylus to scratch a rapid binding rune onto a floor or lintel. The next pursuer to cross the threshold is snared by spectral cords, suffering Level 2 Harm (Tangled and Immobilized) and giving you Great Effect to escape.
* Unravel Woven Ward (Special Action): * Uses: 1 charge per score (or spend 1 Stress). * Effect: Take 1 minute working with the bone pick to neutralize an occult ward, ghost-trap, or enchanted seal safely without tripping its alarm or suffering magical retaliation.
Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition / 2024 Edition) Knot-Pick Roll of Mama Ch’aska 3528
* Item Type: Wondrous Item, Uncommon (Requires Attunement by a character proficient with Thieves’ Tools, Calligrapher’s Supplies, or Weaver’s Tools)
* Carried Location: Waist Belt Slot (Rolled and tied with crimson cord at the waist; individual picks can be stored in wrist sheaths; weighs 1.5 lbs).
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive): * Functions as a set of masterwork Thieves’ Tools. You gain a +1 bonus to Dexterity checks using Thieves’ Tools to pick locks or disarm mechanical traps, and you have Advantage on all ability checks to analyze, tie, or untie non-magical and magical knots.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive): * While holding any tool from this kit, you are immune to effects that cause involuntary hand tremors (such as environmental extreme cold, exhaustion levels 1 through 3, or being Frightened) during ability checks made to perform fine manual dexterity tasks.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive): * When picking a lock or disabling a mechanism, you gain Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to detect spring needles, gas bladders, or tripwires built into the mechanism before triggering them.
* Untie the Bind (Passive / Free Action): * Once on each of your turns as a Free Action, when you are Grappled or Restrained by ropes, webs, cords, netting, or woven magic, you can slip a pick into the binding hitch, gaining Advantage on your check to escape or slip the restraint.
* Cord Mending (1 Charge, Recharges Daily at Dawn): * As a 10-minute ritual, you weave the repair fiber into a damaged rope, whip, bowstring, leather harness, or textile spell focus, restoring 1d4 + 1 hit points to the item. If the item was broken from having 0 hit points or being reduced below half its hit points, this ritual removes the broken condition.
* Seam-Splitter Strike (2 Charges, Recharges Daily at Dawn): * As an Action, you make a melee weapon attack using a bronze pick (Finesse, 1d4 piercing damage). On a hit, you wedge the pick into an armor joint, carapace seam, or construct plating: until the end of your next turn, attack rolls made against that creature have a +2 bonus, or its Armor Class is reduced by 1 (target’s choice of resolution depending on table AC rules).
* Glyph of Swift Tethering (1 Charge, Recharges Daily at Dawn): * As an Action, you use an obsidian stylus to scratch an armed glyph onto a flat surface within 5 feet. The next hostile creature to step within 5 feet of the glyph must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or become Restrained by spectral cordage for 1 minute (the creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success).
* Unravel Woven Ward (1 Charge, Recharges Daily at Dawn): * As an Action requiring 1 minute of uninterrupted concentration, you slip the ancestral bone pick into an active magical glyph, symbol, or ward-knot. Make an Intelligence (Arcana) check against the spell’s save DC. On a success, the magical effect is safely dispelled without triggering its backlash.
Knave (Second Edition) Ch’aska’s Knot-Pick Roll
* Item Slot: 1 Item Slot (Carried tied to the belt by its crimson cord; weight 1.5 lbs, 3 Quality).
* Tool Classification: Fine Lockwork, Scribing, and Fiber Salvage Kit.
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive Trait): * Functions as fine lockpicks and fine bone chisels. You gain Advantage on Dexterity checks made to pick tumbler locks, untangle jammed mechanisms, or disarm delicate wire traps.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive Trait): * You ignore penalties to Dexterity checks caused by biting cavern cold, hunger, or physical fear while performing fine-motor tasks with these tools.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive Trait): * The bronze wires signal internal trap triggers; a failed lockpicking check will not set off internal needle or blade traps unless the roll is a critical failure (natural 1).
* Untie the Bind (Passive Trait): * When tied up by ropes, vines, cords, or nets, you can spend an action to work a bone pick into the hitch, rolling your escape check with Advantage.
* Cord Mending (Daily Exploit): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: Spend 1 exploration turn (10 minutes) chanting and working repair fiber into a broken rope, snapped bowstring, severed harness, or torn sail. Restores 1d4 Quality to the item, returning broken gear to working order.
* Seam-Splitter Strike (Daily Exploit): * Frequency: Twice per day. * Effect: In combat, make a Dexterity attack driving a bronze pick into an armored foe or automaton joint (1d4 damage). On a hit, you reduce the target’s Armor value by 1 point for the rest of the fight.
* Glyph of Swift Tethering (Daily Exploit): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: Scribe a three-stroke glyph onto stone or dirt. The next creature to step onto it must pass a Dexterity save or become trapped in spectral cords, unable to move for 1 round.
* Unravel Woven Ward (Daily Exploit): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: Spend 1 exploration turn (10 minutes) carefully working the yellowed bone pick into an active spell glyph, ward, or magic knot. Make an Intelligence check; on a success, the ward is neutralized safely without detonating.
Fate Core Ch’aska’s Salvage and Inscription Roll 3528
* Classification: Extra (Fine-Work Kit, Security Infiltration Implement, and Mending Focus)
* Permission: An aspect establishing training in Andean archival salvage, lockworking, or inheritance of the Ch’aska scribal lineage, along with possession of the leather tool roll.
* Refresh Cost: 1 Refresh point to bind the roll to the character sheet.
* Primary Item Aspects: * Master Pattern of the Rockfall Scar * The Hand That Freezes the Tremor
* Passive Stunt – Knot and Lock Mastery: * The fine bone and bronze instruments eliminate improvised tool penalties, granting a +2 bonus to Burglary or Crafts rolls made to pick multi-tumbler locks, disarm miniature mechanical safeties, or untie complex cord ciphers.
* Passive Stunt – Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness & Micro-Tension Feedback: * Muscle-memory in the tools suppresses physical shivering; the bearer ignores situational penalties to fine-motor actions caused by extreme cold, exhaustion, or fear. * When picking locks or disabling mechanisms, subtle vibration feedback grants a +2 bonus to Notice rolls to detect internal needle traps or acoustic triggers before they trip.
* Passive Stunt – Untie the Bind: * Once per exchange as a free action, whenever the bearer is bound, entangled, or restrained by ropes, nets, or woven snares, they gain a +2 bonus to Overcome rolls using Burglary or Athletics to slip free.
* Active Stunt – Cord Mending: * Once per session, the wielder spends 10 minutes in focused ritual chant while splicing repair fiber into a broken rope, severed harness, or torn textile relic. This clears a broken situation aspect or restores 2 shifts of physical damage on a flexible item.
* Active Stunt – Seam-Splitter Strike: * Twice per session, the wielder uses a bronze pick to make a Fight attack against an armored opponent or construct. On a success, in addition to dealing physical stress, the target gains the situation aspect Breached Armor Seam with one free invoke.
* Active Stunt – Glyph of Swift Tethering: * Once per session, the wielder spends an action using an obsidian stylus to scribe an armed rune onto a surface. The next hostile creature to enter the zone must defend against a Fair (+2) Crafts or Lore attack; on a failure, the target gains the situation aspect Ensnared in Spectral Cords with one free invoke.
* Active Stunt – Unravel Woven Ward: * Once per session, the wielder spends an exchange working the ancestral bone pick into an active spell glyph or textile ward, rolling Lore or Burglary against Fair (+2) or the ward’s defense rating to safely neutralize the magic without triggering its backlash.
Numenera & Cypher System Ch’aska’s Micro-Tension Salvage Kit 3528
* Classification: Artifact (Infiltration & Structural Fiber Kit)
* Level: 3
* Form: A soft leather roll bound with a crimson cord, containing hooked vicuña bone picks, phosphor-bronze tension wires, cord-clamps, volcanic obsidian styluses, and a spool of agave repair fiber.
* Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (roll upon activating Cord Mending, Seam-Splitter Strike, Glyph of Swift Tethering, or Unravel Woven Ward).
* Passive Properties: * Knot and Lock Mastery: Tasks involving picking mechanical tumbler locks, disarming hair-trigger traps, or unraveling complex cord-ciphers are eased by one step. * Pulse-Stillness: Fine-motor manipulation tasks performed under extreme environmental cold, physical exhaustion, or stress are not hindered by tremors. * Micro-Tension Feedback: Tasks to detect hidden spring-blades, needle triggers, or pressure trips within mechanical locks are eased by one step. * Untie the Bind (Enabler): Tasks made to slip free or cut out of ropes, cables, netting, or biological webbing are eased by one step.
* Active Ability – Cord Mending (Action): * The wielder conducts a 10-minute ritual to splice agave repair fiber into a damaged rope, cable, glider wing, harness, or textile device. Restores up to 4 points of structural health to the target item, removing any disabled or broken status. Roll for Depletion.
* Active Ability – Seam-Splitter Strike (Action): * In melee combat, make a Speed-based attack using a tempered bronze pick against an armored foe, automaton, or vehicle. On a hit, inflicts 3 points of damage and reduces the target’s Armor rating by 1 for the duration of the encounter. Roll for Depletion.
* Active Ability – Glyph of Swift Tethering (Action): * The wielder uses an obsidian stylus to score a rapid binding rune onto a flat surface within immediate range. The next hostile creature to step within immediate range of the mark must succeed on a Speed defense task or become immobilized in spectral cordage for 1 minute. Roll for Depletion.
* Active Ability – Unravel Woven Ward (Action): * The wielder spends 1 minute working the bone pick into an active numenera energy ward, glyph trap, or magic knot. The task to disarm or bypass the ward safely without triggering its discharge is eased by two steps. Roll for Depletion.
Pathfinder (Second Edition Remaster) Knot-Pick Roll of Mama Ch’aska
* Item Traits: Uncommon, Magical, Invested
* Item Level: 3
* Price: 80 gp
* Usage: Worn belt (tied with crimson cord; individual tools held in 1 or 2 hands during use)
* Bulk: Light (L)
* Description: * A soft, oil-tanned buckskin leather roll tied with crimson wool cord. Within are custom sleeves holding curved bone picks, non-magnetic bronze tension wires, obsidian styluses, cord-clamps, and a spool of agave repair fiber.
* Knot and Lock Mastery: * Functions as an expanded thieves’ toolkit, granting a +1 item bonus to Thievery checks to Pick a Lock or Disable a Device, and to Lore checks to decode encrypted knot-ciphers.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness: * You ignore circumstance penalties to Thievery and fine manual Dexterity checks caused by extreme cold, fatigue, or the Frightened condition.
* Micro-Tension Feedback: * You gain a +1 item bonus to Perception checks to detect hidden spring needles, blades, or tripwires inside locks or mechanisms before attempting to disable them.
* Untie the Bind (Free Action): * Trigger: You are Grabbed, Restrained, or immobilized by ropes, webbing, or woven bindings. * Frequency: Once per round. * Effect: You attempt an Escape check with a +1 circumstance bonus; on a success, the binding loosens and you slip free instantly.
* Activate – Cord Mending (10 minutes, Concentrate, Manipulate): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: You splice agave fiber into a damaged cord, rope, harness, or textile focus, restoring 1d4+3 Hit Points to that item. If the item was broken, this removes the Broken condition once its Hit Points rise above its Broken Threshold.
* Activate – Seam-Splitter Strike (One Action, Attack, Manipulate): * Frequency: Twice per day. * Effect: Make a melee Strike with a bronze pick (agile, finesse). On a hit, you deal 1d4 piercing damage, and the target’s circumstance bonus to AC from a shield is negated, or the target suffers a -1 circumstance penalty to AC until the end of your next turn.
* Activate – Glyph of Swift Tethering (Two Actions, Concentrate, Manipulate): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: You scratch an armed rune on a surface within 5 feet. The next enemy moving within 5 feet must attempt a DC 19 Reflex save: * Success: Unaffected. * Failure: The target becomes Immobilized and Clumsy 1 for 1 round. * Critical Failure: The target is Immobilized and Clumsy 2 for 1 minute (can Escape vs DC 19).
* Activate – Unravel Woven Ward (1 minute, Concentrate, Manipulate): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: You probe an active magical hazard, ward-knot, or glyph using the bone pick, attempting to Disable it using Thievery or Arcana against the hazard DC without triggering its reaction on a regular failure.
Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition) Mama Ch’aska’s Knot-Pick Roll 3528
* Item Classification: Fine Infiltration Kit / Arcane Relic
* Weight: 1.5 lbs
* Value: 800 currency units
* Minimum Strength: d4
* Carried Location: Waist Belt (tied in a soft leather roll; individual tools held in hand).
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive Property): * Eliminates improvised tool penalties and grants a +1 bonus to Thievery rolls made to pick locks or bypass mechanical traps, and to Academics rolls to decipher complex knot-scripts.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive Property): * Negates up to 2 points of penalties caused by extreme cold, Fatigue, or shivering hands during fine-motor or Thievery tasks.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive Property): * Grants a +2 bonus to Notice rolls to detect internal spring triggers, poison needles, or tripwires inside mechanical locks.
* Untie the Bind (Passive Property / Free Action): * Once per turn as a Free Action, when Bound or Entangled by ropes, nets, or woven bindings, the user gains a +2 bonus to rolls made to slip free.
* Internal Power Reserve: * Contains 5 dedicated Power Points that recharge at a rate of 1 point per hour.
* Integrated Power – Cord Mending (Healing – Woven Gear): * Power Points: 1 * Range: Touch * Duration: Instant * Trapping: 10-minute ritual chanting and weaving repair fiber into damaged ropes, climbing harnesses, or flexible gear. * Mechanics: Removes the Broken/Wrecked status from a textile item, restoring it to full operational durability.
* Integrated Power – Seam-Splitter Strike (Lower Trait – Armor): * Power Points: 1 * Range: Melee * Duration: Instant * Trapping: Driving a tempered bronze pick into an armor seam or construct joint. * Mechanics: In combat, make an Athletics or Fighting attack (Str+d4 damage). On a success, the target’s Armor value is reduced by 2 points (or 4 on a Raise) for the remainder of the encounter.
* Integrated Power – Glyph of Swift Tethering (Entangle): * Power Points: 2 * Range: Touch * Duration: Instant (arms until triggered) * Trapping: An armed three-stroke obsidian glyph inscribed on the ground. * Mechanics: The next enemy stepping onto the square triggers an Entangle power (Spirit check at -2 on a Raise to resist) that pins them in place with spectral cords.
* Integrated Power – Unravel Woven Ward (Dispel – Arcane Traps): * Power Points: 1 * Range: Touch * Duration: Instant * Trapping: Working the ancestral bone pick into an active spell glyph or magical knot. * Mechanics: The user spends 1 minute manipulating the ward, making an opposed Smarts or Thievery check against the ward’s creator to safely dispel it without triggering its explosion or alarm.
Shadowrun (Sixth World) Ch’aska’s Infiltration and Fiber Scribe Kit 3528
* Item Classification: Fine Physical Infiltration Tool Kit / Non-Electronic Security Apparatus (Waist Belt Slot: Carried rolled in its soft leather pouch at the waist; individual tools drawn in one or both hands; picks fit into wrist-sheaths)
* Essence & Focus Profile: Essence 0 (Non-cybernetic gear). Can be bonded by Awakened characters as a Force 2 Manipulation / Enchanting Focus for 6 Karma; non-awakened characters use the apparatus as a specialized mechanical intrusion and anti-security set.
* Physical Profile: An oil-tanned dark leather roll secured by a cochineal-dyed crimson cord. Contains curved vicuña bone picks, non-ferrous phosphor-bronze tension wires, micro-clamps, knapped volcanic obsidian styluses, and a spool of agave repair fiber. Stitched with Ch’aska’s cipher. Weight: 0.7 kg (1.5 lbs).
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive Trait): * Negates all improvised tool penalties against un-networked manual locks, physical tumbler mechanisms, and complex cord ciphers. The user gains a +2 dice pool bonus on Engineering (Lockpicking) tests made against mechanical and mechanical-dial locks.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive Trait): * Muscle-memory ingrained within the heirloom tools steadies the operator’s nervous system. The user completely ignores negative dice pool modifiers caused by extreme cold, physical fatigue, wound penalties (up to -2), or trembling from fear during fine-motor tasks.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive Trait): * Fine vibrational resonance passes through the phosphor-bronze tension wires. The user gains a +2 dice pool bonus on Perception tests to detect internal booby-trap needles, acoustic triggers, or chemical injection vials inside mechanical lock casings before the mechanism trips.
* Untie the Bind (Passive / Minor Action): * Once per combat turn as a Minor Action, when restrained by zip-ties, ropes, webbing, or flexible synthetic bindings, the user may slip a pick into the hitch, gaining a +2 dice pool bonus and +1 Edge on the test to escape.
* Cord Mending (Active Major Action): * Frequency: 1 charge per 24-hour cycle. * Effect: A 10-minute focused ritual splicing agave fiber into damaged tactical ropes, rappelling lines, climbing harnesses, or flexible armor weave. Restores 2 boxes of structural/armor integrity to the item, removing the broken or compromised status.
* Seam-Splitter Strike (Active Major Action): * Frequency: 2 charges per 24-hour cycle. * Effect: The wielder drives a tempered bronze pick into the seam, rivet gap, or joint of an enemy’s armor plate, drone chassis, or construct plating (Close Combat test; DV 2P, AR Close 8). On a hit, the strike compromises the joint, reducing the target’s Defense Rating (DR) by 2 points until repaired.
* Glyph of Swift Tethering (Active Major Action): * Frequency: 1 charge per 24-hour cycle. * Effect: Scribes a three-stroke glyph onto the floor with an obsidian stylus. The next hostile pursuer to cross within 2 meters triggers an eruption of spectral cordage; the target must succeed on an Athletics + Strength test (threshold 3) or suffer the Immobilized status for 2 combat turns.
* Unravel Woven Ward (Active Major Action): * Frequency: 1 charge per 24-hour cycle. * Effect: The wielder spends 1 minute manipulating an active mana barrier, glyph trap, or spirit ward with the ancestral bone pick. Roll Arcana + Logic against the ward’s Force x 2; on a success, the ward is deactivated for 1 hour without triggering an astral alarm.
Starfinder (Second Edition) Ch’aska Resonant Lock-Pick Kit 3528
* Item Level: 3
* Price: 850 Credits
* Bulk: Light (L)
* Category: Worn Belt Infiltration & Repair Kit (Worn at waist; 1 or 2 hands to use)
* Usage: Worn belt, invested
* Traits: Analog, Hybrid, Magical, Invested
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive Trait): * Functions as advanced infiltration tools, granting a +1 item bonus to Thievery checks to Pick a Lock or Disable a Device on mechanical, analog, or manual pressure systems.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive Trait): * You ignore circumstance penalties to Thievery and fine manual Dexterity checks caused by extreme planetary cold, low atmospheric pressure, or the Frightened and Fatigued conditions.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive Trait): * You gain a +1 item bonus to Perception checks to notice internal spring-loaded needles, acoustic traps, or thermal sensors inside physical locking systems before attempting to disable them.
* Untie the Bind (Free Action): * Trigger: You are Grabbed, Restrained, or immobilized by ropes, cables, alien webbing, or non-rigid restraints. * Frequency: Once per round. * Effect: You attempt an Escape check with a +1 circumstance bonus; on a success, the binding loosens and you slip free instantly without expending an action.
* Activate – Cord Mending (10 minutes, Concentrate, Manipulate, Magical): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: You splice agave fiber into a damaged tow-cable, tether line, vacuum harness, or flexible armor weave, restoring 1d4+3 Hit Points to that item. If the item was broken, this removes the Broken condition once its Hit Points rise above its Broken Threshold.
* Activate – Seam-Splitter Strike (One Action, Attack, Manipulate): * Frequency: Twice per day. * Effect: Make a melee Strike using a bronze pick (Agile, Finesse, 1d4 piercing). On a hit, you wedge the tool into an armor seal or plating seam; the target takes a -1 circumstance penalty to AC until the end of your next turn.
* Activate – Glyph of Swift Tethering (Two Actions, Concentrate, Manipulate, Magical): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: You scratch an armed rune onto a surface within 5 feet. The next hostile creature to move within 5 feet must succeed on a DC 19 Reflex save or become Immobilized and Clumsy 1 for 1 round.
* Activate – Unravel Woven Ward (1 minute, Concentrate, Manipulate): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: You use the ancestral bone pick to probe an active tech-magic security ward or glyph trap, making a Thievery or Arcana check against the hazard DC to disable it safely without triggering its alarm or countermeasure.
Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition) Mama Ch’aska Fine Mechanics Roll 3528
* Item Classification: Archaic Precision Lock-Pick and Fiber Salvage Kit (Waist Belt Slot: Carried rolled in leather case; tools drawn in hand)
* Tech Level: TL 8 (Exotic Non-Electronic Mechanical Relic)
* Mass: 0.7 Kilograms (1.5 lbs)
* Suggested Cost: Cr 850
* Relevant Skills: Mechanic, Lockpicking, Profession (Archival), Survival, Recon
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive Property): * The specialized bone and bronze picks eliminate improvised gear penalties when tackling un-networked manual tumbler locks, cargo hatch dog-latches, or complex physical bindings, granting a +1 DM on Lockpicking or Mechanic checks.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive Property): * Negates up to -2 DM in penalties caused by freezing planetary cold, physical exhaustion, or hypothermia-induced shivering during fine manual dexterity or repair tasks.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive Property): * The phosphor-bronze tension wires transmit minute mechanical vibration directly to the user’s hand, granting an automatic +1 DM on Recon checks to detect booby-trap needles, pressurized gas pins, or acoustic trips inside physical locks before triggering them.
* Untie the Bind (Passive Property / Minor Action): * Once per combat round as a Minor Action, when restrained by cords, nylon tie-wraps, or boarding nets, the user gains a +2 DM to escape or slip free using Athletics (Dexterity).
* Cord Mending (Active Action): * Frequency: 1 charge per standard day. * Duration: 10 minutes. * Effect: The traveler splices agave fiber into a damaged tow-rope, winch cable, cargo net, or environmental suit harness, restoring structural integrity and removing the broken status.
* Seam-Splitter Strike (Active Action): * Frequency: 2 charges per standard day. * Effect: In close quarters, the user strikes an armored opponent, drone casing, or vacuum-suit seam with a bronze pick (Melee [Unarmed or Blade] skill; Damage: 1D+1). On a successful hit, the strike breaches the seam, reducing the target’s physical Armor protection by 1 point for the remainder of the encounter.
* Glyph of Swift Tethering (Active Action): * Frequency: 1 charge per standard day. * Effect: Scratches a rapid three-stroke rune onto the deck or portal frame. The next hostile pursuer to pass within 2 meters must pass an Average (8+) Athletics (Dexterity) check or become Entangled and unable to move for 1 combat round.
* Unravel Woven Ward (Active Action): * Frequency: 1 charge per standard day. * Effect: Spending 1 minute working with the bone pick allows the user to disarm an archaic pressure trap, mechanical trip-matrix, or bio-ward safely without triggering its alert or retaliation.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition) Knot-Pick Roll of Mama Ch’aska 3528
* Item Classification: Fine Lockpick Set and Fiber Salvage Kit (Waist Belt Slot: Rolled and tied at the waist; individual tools drawn in hand; individual picks fit in bracer loops)
* Encumbrance: 0
* Availability: Exotic (Highland Andean Provenance)
* Item Qualities: Fine, Practical, Precise, Subtle
* Knot and Lock Mastery (Passive Relic Trait): * Functions as a set of fine lockpicks, granting a +10% bonus to Pick Lock Tests and Art (Calligraphy or Inscription) Tests involving micro-inscriptions or cord-ciphers.
* Ch’aska’s Pulse-Stillness (Passive Relic Trait): * The wielder ignores penalty modifiers to fine manual Dexterity tests caused by extreme Cold weather, the Fatigued Condition, or shivering from fear.
* Micro-Tension Feedback (Passive Trait): * The bronze tension wires transmit subtle resistance cues, providing a +10% bonus to Perception Tests to spot poison needles, razor springs, or bells built inside locks before attempting to open them.
* Untie the Bind (Passive / Free Action): * Once per round as a Free Action, when entangled or bound by ropes, nets, or leather cords, the bearer gains a +10% bonus on Dexterity or Athletics (Escape) Tests to slip free.
* Cord Mending (Active Action): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: A 10-minute ritual chanting and splicing agave repair fiber into damaged ropes, bowstrings, whip-cords, or textile armor. Restores 1d10 Damage or Structure Points to the item, removing the Broken Condition.
* Seam-Splitter Strike (Active Action): * Frequency: Twice per day. * Effect: The wielder makes a melee attack using a bronze pick (Melee [Brawling]; Damage: +SB+1 Piercing, Precise quality). On a successful hit, the pick breaches a seam, reducing the Armor Points (AP) of that hit location by 1 point for the remainder of the encounter.
* Glyph of Swift Tethering (Active Action): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: Scribes a rapid three-stroke rune on a stone or wooden threshold. The next enemy to step across it must succeed on a Challenging (+0) Dodge Test or gain the Entangled Condition (Strength 40) from spectral cords.
* Unravel Woven Ward (Active Action): * Frequency: Once per day. * Effect: The user spends 1 minute working with the bone pick to bypass an active magical ward, glyph, or spell-trap. The user makes an Extended Challenging (+0) Pick Lock or Lore (Magic) Test to safely unravel the ward without setting off its magical backlash.